Monday, December 7, 2009

bye bye, peter macKay! And take that rat stephen harper with you

Posted by Christian  |  at  7.12.09

The harpercons are finally being exposed as the frauds they are. I actually thought they'd get away with the torture cover~up a little longer. Then again, I suppose a group this depraved shouldn't really be all that surprised.

Here is mackay in his own words denying, denying, denying, that there had ever been a single, solitary, proven allegation of abuse of a detainee or a Taliban prisoner, transferred by Canadian Forces.
"There has never been a single, solitary, proven allegation of abuse of a detainee, a Taliban prisoner, transferred by Canadian Forces.” Dec. 2 in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, there has not been a single, solitary, proven allegation of a prisoner being abused that was transferred from the Canadian Forces.”
Nov. 23 in the House of Commons

“We do want to hear from individuals who can bring forward credible, proven allegations, not just recitations of what was heard, what was passed on, what was read in reports, or what was disclosed by Taliban prisoners themselves. That is what the evidence is so far. We have not seen a single scintilla of proof.
Nov. 23 in the House of Commons

“There has never been a single proven allegation of abuse involving a prisoner transferred by the Canadian Forces, not one.” Nov. 23 in the House of Commons

“Not a single Taliban soldier turned over by Canadian forces can be proved to have been abused. That is the crux of the issue.” Nov. 22 in a press conference

“There has not been a single, solitary proven allegation of abuse involving a transferred Taliban prisoner by Canadian forces.” Nov. 19, in a press conference
Okay technically, that's just not....um, true..
In one well-documented case in the summer of 2006, Canadian soldiers captured and handed over a detainee who was so severely beaten by Afghan police that the Canadians intervened and took the detainee back.

Canadian medics then treated the man's injuries. The incident is documented in the field notes of Canadian troops, recounted in a sworn affidavit by a senior officer and confirmed in cross-examination by a general.
Our soldiers performed admirably and with honour, which is something this regime could not possibly fathom the meaning of. Our soldiers knew their responsibilities and fulfilled them.
Col. Noonan's affidavit also refers to instances of Canadian soldiers refusing to transfer prisoners threatened with death by Afghan security forces.

“The Afghan National Army wished to take custody of a detainee captured by the Canadian Forces and were overheard, by an interpreter, to be contemplating the execution of the detainee,” Col. Noonan said in his affidavit, adding that the chain of command was advised and the detainee wasn't transferred.
Former Lieutenant~General Walt Natynczyk ~ who has since been promoted to chief of defence staff ~ denied the beaten detainee had passed through Canadian custody however, that has been convincingly contradicted by Col. Noonan and then Brigadier~General Joseph Deschamps.
However, the soldier's contemporaneous field notes – written on the day of the incident but not released until months after the DND's media statement – offer a version that matches the sworn affidavit and provides compelling detail of a sequence of capture, transfer, rescue and medical treatment. “Local ANP [Afghan National Police] elements were in possession of a PUC [person in custody] detained by CDA troops and subsequently transferred to ANP custody,” the detailed written notes say.

They also refer by name and unit to the Canadian platoon that originally captured the individual and took pictures of him (showing no injuries) before they handed him over. Those photos, both showing the detainee unharmed before being handed over and after being beaten, have been withheld by the government.
I must say, macKay's denial in light of this new evidence is flimsy, at best.
The minister's spokesman said Sunday that Mr. MacKay was standing by his repeated denials.

He has said what he has said based on the advice of generals and senior officials in the department,” said Dan Dugas, spokesman for the minister.
What type of advice? Is it of the legal variety? Where it allows you to parse words, redact documents and conceal evidence which counters your propaganda? And how far up the chain of command does this spread? I don't believe the harper government was oblivious to any of this.

I say bring on the inquiry and let the harpercons fall where they may.

4 comments:

  1. I can still remember the good old days of "ministerial responsibility"... "Based on the advice"? That's not an excuse!

    Victors' justice obviously prevents everyone from McKay down in the chain of command from being hauled into court on war crimes charges, but at least we know (some of) the truth. More leaks will follow, hopefully.

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  2. Hi, David. Great blog name by the way. {parliamentshill}

    Yeah I'm not counting on the "buck" stopping with harper. I can only imagine what we would hear if this reaches an investigative stage.

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  3. Thanks.

    An inquiry. (My kingdom for an inquiry!) That's what we need. I imagine we will not be getting one, however. The Harper government would never stoop to such a level of public accountability and transparency, and I highly suspect that plenty of dodgy things went on in Afghanistan under the previous Liberal government as well.

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  4. David, if the harper government rejects the call for an inquiry, could the opposition parties not put together some sort of committee and at least question important witnesses?

    And I believe your suspicion is warranted with regards to the Liberals. That could explain why they haven't really pounced on this. That doesn't negate the need for a broad investigation, in my view. If the Liberals were involved in wrong doing, that should also be exposed.

    As Errol Mendes stated, "Governments come and go but the military as an institution remains and the damage this kind of approach can leave is severe."

    It makes no difference to me who the government of the day is. My interest is in how our country benefits as a whole.

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